The present apparatus and method relate to urban transportation systems.
U.S. Patent Publication 2013/0073327 discloses an urban transportation system and method, which provides flexible, door-to-door transportation service between customers within a service area surrounding a node of a station of an urban transportation system, such as a train station, subway station, etc.
In response to a customer request, a transport within a defined service area travels to the location of the customer and then transports the customer between the pick-up location and the node in the transportation system which is the central hub in the service zone. The transport service request instructions are dynamically determined in real time with respect to the customer pick-up location, the current location of the transport, and a predetermined maximum allowable travel time between the customer pick-up and drop-off at the node.
The predetermined travel time may be calculated for a transport using the time that the customer reaches the transit node starting with the time of the pick-up request from the customer until the time the customer reaches the transit node or from the time the customer is picked up and dropped off at the node. Either time periods define the predetermined time period essential to efficient operation of the transit model. For example, if a 15 minute predetermined time period is selected for operation of the transit system, and the first time period calculation described above is utilized then the transit system must respond to a pick-up request from a customer by directing a transport at a second location within the service area surrounding node to the location of the customer, pick-up the customer and then travel by a flexible, real time determined route to the node so that the customer reaches the node within 15 minutes of initiating a pick-up request.